CFTC boss says Ethereum is a commodity

The latest statement by the US CFTC chairman created a contradictory situation among the crypto investors, whether to follow the rules of the SEC or CFTC.

In the present time, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are leading regulatory bodies in the United States which regulate the crypto sector under their respective traditional framework. In particular, the SEC agency is known as a strict regulatory body in the crypto sector because the agency keeps taking strict regulatory actions on crypto companies on behalf of its traditional securities laws. 

Recently at a Manhattan event featuring Rutgers Law, Wall Street Blockchain Alliance, and Lowenstein Sandler, CFTC chairman Rostin Behnam said that Bitcoin (BTC) & Ethereum (ETH) are Commodities.

CFTC chairman said:

“I’ve suggested (Ether) is a commodity, and Chair Gensler thinks otherwise.”

This statement by the CFTC chairman is creating a matter of big conversation among the crypto investors because on one side there is an SEC agency that is not ready to admit that ETH is a commodity, another side CFTC agency is openly marking ETH as a commodity.

Once, SEC chairman Gary Gensler said that Bitcoin is a commodity but denied talking about the nature of other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Ripple, etc. 

Ripple vs SEC 

In December 2020, The SEC agency filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs to claim that XRP is a security, which should be registered with the agency. 

In the lawsuit, Ripple defender attorneys tried to use the statement of Former SEC official William Hinman, who said that Ethereum was not security but the SEC agency claimed that past statements on the nature of Ethereum were personal statements & should not be use in the XRP lawsuit.

Here it is worth noting that Ethereum recently shifted its blockchain operations from Proof-of-work to Proof-of-stake model. Many people claimed that regulatory bodies may consider Ethereum as a security but the latest statement by the CFTC chairman is showing that ETH is in a safe zone and regulatory bodies are in support of Ethereum. 

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